BREAD AND BUTTER: What a Bunch of Bakers Taught Me About Business and Happiness

With more warmheartedness and life improvement strategies than a month's worth of Oprah (TV, book or magazine), McMakin's guide to working well and living better is a potent and memorable read. A one-time Peace Corps volunteer and searching soul with a penchant for the outdoors (he once hiked 1,000 miles across Africa on a whim), McMakin started working for the Great Harvest Bread Company in 1993 and is now the company's chief operating officer. Great Harvest is a 25-year-old company running 140 franchised bakeries in 40 states. Making sure that each bakery buys its wheat from an approved quality vendor and freshly grinds it every morning are among the few rules the company cares about, and it shows. Barely two pages in and your mouth is already watering for a thick slice of the soft wheat bread slathered with butter and honey. McMakin mixes his own history in the company with a detailed examination of how its founders—a pair of lovable but tough-minded hippies named Laura and Paul Wakeman—developed the business their way. The maxims about the advantages of slow growth, always paying employees more than similar jobs in the area and not letting work overshadow your life are immediately applicable to just about anybody who picks up the book. McMakin's featherlight touch and buoyant enthusiasm make for such an infectiously inspiring read, in fact, that each copy should come with a label: "Warning: May cause an uncontrollable urge to start your own business." (June)